Colossal pyramids, imposing temples, golden treasures, enigmatic hieroglyphs, powerful pharaohs, strange gods, and mysterious mummies are features of Ancient Egyptian culture that have fascinated people over the millennia. The Bible refers to its gods, rulers, and pyramids. Neighboring cultures in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean wrote about its god-like kings and its seemingly endless supply of gold. The Greeks and Romans describe aspects of Egypt's culture and history.
As the 19th century began, the Napoleonic campaign in Egypt highlighted the wonders of this ancient land, and public interest soared. Not long after, Champollion deciphered Egypt's hieroglyphs and paved the way for other scholars to reveal that Egyptian texts dealt with medicine, dentistry, veterinary practices, mathematics, literature, and accounting, and many other topics. Then, early in the 20th century, Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun and its fabulous contents. Exhibitions of this treasure a few decades later resulted in the world's first blockbuster, and its revival in the 21st century has kept interest alive.
Join Dr. David Silverman, Professor of Egyptology at Penn, Curator in Charge of the Egyptian Section of the Penn Museum, and curator of the Tutankhamun exhibitions on a guided tour of the mysteries and wonders of this ancient land. He has developed this online course and set it in the galleries of the world famous Penn Museum. He uses many original Egyptian artifacts to illustrate his lectures as he guides students as they make their own discovery of this fascinating culture.

Taught By

David P. Silverman

Transcript

[MUSIC] Not only did kings take on divine status, private citizens occasionally approached the level of a God. In these cases, however, the individuals attained this position only after death. In many ways, we can compare them to the concept of sainthood. For example, Imhotep, the high priest of Ra during the Third Dynasty, reputed to be the architect of the step pyramid, this visor of King Djoser also held the title High Priest of Ra. In addition, he was known as a skillful physician. So talented was he in the latter profession, that he became a demigod of medicine not long after his death. In later sources, he also acquired the reputation of a great sage, and was referred to as the author of some of the earliest wisdom literature. Although, he, along with other writers of similar works, Ptahhotep or Hordjedeff, and Kagemni achieved cult status, only he was worshiped as a God. Although, not really until the late period, more than 1500 years later. A cult for the diefied late Old Kingdom official, Heqaib, was established after his death in Elephantine in the South. And by the middle kingdom, several centuries later, people still visited his sanctuary. Amenhotep, son of Hapu, the director of works for Pharoah Amenhotep the Third was accorded the honor of having a funerary temple dedicated to him on the West Bank of Thebes, in an area reserved for Pharaonic mortuary temples. And his statuary flanked the roots of the ritual procession in the temples. His close association with the king, Amenhotep the Third, and the power of his many offices led the people to revere him, apparently, a cult to him, especially in regard to medicine developed after his death, and then a cult temple to him was erected at Deir el-Bahri later. Perhaps one of the most interesting individuals in regard to the concept of divine living person is the next king, Amenhotep IV. But that is a long story and we'll deal with that in another lecture.

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